Attorney: San Mateo County office so chaotic that workers had to cover dead clients' estate costs

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
12/01/2012 03:00:00 AM PST

The San Mateo County Public Administrator's office was so disorganized that employees frequently paid for work-related expenses out of their own pockets and reimbursed themselves from clients' accounts, according to a legal motion.

The attorney for one of two former county employees arrested in June on suspicion of stealing from the estates of deceased residents filed the motion in an attempt to obtain grand jury transcripts on the case.

Although federal Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins denied release of the transcripts, Dean Johnson, the lawyer for defendant Peter Wong, said he is confident his client and fellow defendant Mandy Natchi Yagi will be vindicated if the case goes to trial as scheduled May 6.

"They worked for the county under some very difficult circumstances," Johnson said. "They tried very hard to do a very good job."

Wong, of Daly City, and Yagi, of San Mateo, were arrested by FBI agents in June and charged with conspiracy to commit theft from a federally funded program and theft concerning a federally funded program. An indictment filed in U.S. District Court and unsealed after their arrest states that the two took money, jewelry and other valuables from estates they administered.

In his motion, Johnson claimed the FBI's evidence showed that the Public Administrator's office "was best described as chaotic."

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"Specifically, it was accepted practice for the DPA (deputy public administrators) to negotiate transactions involving estate funds through the use of their own personal funds and to seek reimbursement at a later date," Johnson wrote. "This practice apparently rose from the conflict between the DPA's fiduciary duty to their estates and the County's lack of efficiency in handling estate funds."

In the motion, Johnson tries to explain why his client took certain actions that were construed as crimes.

He said valuables and identification documents belonging to 19 different estates found inside a metal box at the residence of a decedent whose estate Wong administered were "being stored as they were because the (Public) Administrator's office failed to provide its DPA's with any other secure place to store the items."

A $5,000 check Yagi allegedly withdrew in November 2010 from the account of an estate and gave to Wong's roommate was to pay for the care of an 8-year-old Bedlington Terrier that once belonged to the deceased client that the two agreed to adopt, according to Johnson's legal motion. The roommate subsequently gave half of the money to Wong.

And a $5,613 check that Wong received through the sale of 14 items of jewelry and gold from one of the estates he handled and deposited into his personal bank account was later converted to a cashier's check to be given to the estate, the motion claims.

But a Nov. 21 document filed by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Caputo states that the "government's interpretation of the facts differs considerably from Wong's."

The document states that in addition to the locked metal box found with valuables from different estates, Yagi and Wong both had estate documents, identification forms, checks and other valuables in their homes.

And the cashier's check Wong said he obtained for the sale of jewelry and intended to return to the estate was still in his possession after he resigned from county employment on Nov. 15, according to the federal officials' document.

When the FBI interviewed Wong's roommate about the money for the dog, he said he had been an intermediary for about $10,000 worth of checks over two years, then told agents, "I'm a sucker I guess ... obviously, they're taking from the estate," according to the document.

"The government's investigation into the conduct giving rise to the indictment is ongoing," the document states. "The government advised Wong and Yagi's counsel last July it expects to bring additional charges against the two defendants."

San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Wong and Yagi were the only employees directly responsible for handling estates in the five-person Public Administrator's office. Although he disagrees with the "chaotic" label, Wagstaffe acknowledged there were "unacceptable practices" in the handling of estates.

"They ran it," Wagstaffe said. "And there was an issue of if they were properly monitored."